Apple has reached yet another key milestone. And although most of us were sound asleep when it happened, the accomplishment in question is making no shortage of headlines this morning. As it turns out, Apple topped one-half million app approvals during the middle of the night, according to Chomp, a technology company that solves app discovery problems with new search technologies.

"Though the number of active apps available in the Apple App Store is roughly 400,000, the number of approved apps is a proven milestone for developers and app seekers alike," the company stated in a release Tuesday morning. Ben Keighran, CEO & Co-Founder of Chomp, also chimed in saying that "this is an exciting time for developers and organizations who believe in the continued growth of the app landscape and reaffirms app discovery as an important part of the development."

To go along with the announcement, 148Apps, Chomp, and Chillingo teamed up to roll out an interesting little infographic, which puts into perspective the impressive range of growth enjoyed by the App Store during the last three years. Among the notable findings:

It would cost $891,982.24 and over 7 terabytes to get all available applications.

Approximately 36% of all apps are free and paid apps have an average price of $3.64

Angry Birds released by Chillingo and developed by Rovio has held the number 1 paid spot more than any other app at 275 days total.

Is it coincidence or just plain perfect timing that all these "milestones" seem to occur right before an upcoming keynote? You have to wonder if this information is being manipulated by Apple so they can add another bullet point to the presentation checklist in a few weeks.

Next year around this time will we see 750,000 app approvals? 2 billion downloads?